HUNDREDS of completed petition forms have piled in from readers of the Birmingham Mail since a campaign for an elected mayor referendum was launched two weeks ago.

HUNDREDS of completed petition forms have piled in from readers of the Birmingham Mail since a campaign for an elected mayor referendum was launched two weeks ago.

Several thousand voters have already signed the forms demanding their right to decide how Birmingham is run.

And many more are being actively collected by organ-isations including Birmingham Citizens, the Birmingham Guild of Students, leading business groups and various MPs and city councillors.

The forms currently being processed are just a small proportion of what is needed, as the petition needs to be signed by at least 36,249 registered Birmingham voters within a year to legally trigger a people's poll.

Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson said: "We have had hundreds of forms back from readers, many with a full sheet of ten signatures, and some with two full sheets.

"We can't put an exact figure on the total because we have to formally verify the signatures before we know the valid total.

"But from Mail readers alone the initial response has been impressive - and shows that many people are interested in this issue and want the right to choose how their city is governed."

So many forms have arrived that the Mail has now taken on outside secretarial assistance to help process them.

The Mail has taken formal advice from the Department of Local Government and Communities to ensure the petition meets all the requirements in law.

And several members of the public have now volunteered to assist with the checking process needed to ensure that the eventual petition total is valid.